The perfect trifecta of feelings

I'm not someone that can compartmentalize all, most, or even a little of what life hands me. I am and have always been a very emotional person, irrationally so. At three my father remembers hearing me cry from behind my locked bedroom door. Concerned, he knocked and asked to come in. I went to the door, still crying, unlocked the door, still crying, went back to sitting on my bed and cried. He asked me what was wrong and through the tears and sobs I cried that I was afraid I would not be able to think when I grew up.  As a child I had grown up fears about life.  I still have irrational fears and can see that they are irrational but that doesn’t always stop me from overreacting, or thinking the situation through.

My most recent endeavor of becoming a childbirth educator is something that happened more organically than not. That is to say I didn’t think about it in the traditional sense--I just did it. I’ve said before that I always wanted to be an art teacher. This came from not only loving art and creation but my high school art teacher Mrs. Lantz. She was a kooky woman and your typical art teacher, a little disorganized, perpetually 3 minutes late and sweet as all get out. I had her for 3 of my 4 years in high school, and as a senior she was my first bell teacher and we would more often than not both get there just a little late. Her ability to make people feel empowered, comfortable and creative was and still is truly inspiring.  That’s a combination of emotions that are not too often found in one place.

  My first birth was not one of those places. After having my first baby I talked a little about my birth experience but was not completely happy with it and didn’t quite know why; after my second, I knew why. My first pregnancy was overseen by a midwife that worked through an OB office. I took comfort in knowing a doctor was there if needed but happy that I was seeing a midwife. The problem is, I had NO IDEA who was going to deliver this baby! Any doctor or midwife from this or two other practices, a total of twelve people, could be on call the day I went into labor. Oh boy! The not knowing frightened me. On the day I did go into labor, it was a doctor that I knew by face from walking through the hals at the OB office. I later learned she was also my Mother in Laws GYN. I think that woman knows was too much now about the F family vagina. I’m just saying...

When I went into the hospital I was barely having contractions, I only know this now after having other birth experiences to compare it to. The triage nurse hooked me up and monitored the baby and my contractions for about an hour; she asked me to tell her when I thought I was having a contraction. Apparently the baby was not responding enough, and thats because they were not strong enough due to being only very early labor. I was IMMEDIATELY put on pitocin. She told, not asked, told me the anesthesiologist would be up soon. I looked at her and told her I was doing this without pain meds and I did not want to hear anything about it again. She smirked a “sure you stupid girl” smile and led me to the delivery room. My nurse for the duration of my stay Sarah came in shortly and talked to me about pain relief. Were they not listening? I told her the same thing I told the other nurse. I was left in the room with my husband with constant unrelenting contractions for the next 10 hours. I was able to sit on the ball and such for a few hours but around hour 6 I was on my back and SOOOO uncomfortable. Fast forward. I felt the need to push, and I mean NEED TO PUSH. I told Sarah and she told the doc who examined me and said I still had time and that she was going to check on the delivery in progress in room #8. She walked out and I started pushing, there was no holding back. The doctor was called back and after 20 or so minutes of me pushing my baby girl made her way into the world.  I was asked what classes I took to accomplish an unmedicated birth, I responded with the only thing I knew, “None, I took the advice of the mothers that have gone before me.” And then I was told to write a book...Um no. 

The midwife I saw through that pregnancy went to a (military) hospital I was not able to deliver at for my next pregnancy and that is when I went to the midwifery center at DePaul. There I was given the comfort and respect to trust my body because it knew what it was doing. The trifecta of feeling empowered, comfortable and creative were once again in place.  To say the process and labor for my other children was  amazingly and unquantifiably better is an understatement.  But more on that later!

After these experiences I could not stop talking about the differences in a medical birth and a comfortable birth. For the record these things are not mutually exclusive. Some women have amazing hospital births and I could not be more happy for them. I just know that information based on evidence going into childbirth is key. So I decided to change that aspect of the world, in a small way I am still an art teacher. Women are after all at the height of their creative abilities while pregnant and labor is the culmination of that.

My experiences have formed me and given me insight to make the decisions that will affect my life for years to come.

I have come to terms with my ability or lack of ability to think. It gets me in trouble sometimes but more often than not it puts me into situations that I never knew I wanted or would probably never get into otherwise, you know if I thought things through.  I do think, and think things through, just not all the time. I often act first and decide what to do later. If I try to do things the conventional way I either go into analysis paralysis or feel confined and locked into a decision, whereas if I didn’t “make a decision” then I cant be tied to it. Kind of like not making plans for Saturday night and finding the best party ever or making plans to go to said party but feeling like you might want to be home doing nothing. Does this even make sense? Either way I am excited for the path I am on now to show women that being empowered, comfortable and creative is all about having the right head space to trust in their own bodies.